Portland Trip Feb 2010

Just got back from a weekend trip to Portland with the wife. I haven't been up that way in several years. It is a town of cooks, you see them everywhere usually smoking behind a restaurant. My goodness did we eat a lot of really good food. Different dishes from all over the world, really great stuff; Italian, Vietnamese, ridiculously fresh seafood, french, and good ole American steak just to mention a few. I had a bowl of Pho from a little trailer in a parking lot. Unbelievable good, the flavors in the broth mixed perfectly the cuts of meat weren't over cooked or to fatty. That area just has such good fresh ingredients and like a I said a ton of cooks that know exactly what to do with them. Portland has the most micro-brewery's in the United States. I don't know how everyone there isn't a alcoholic they have AMAZING beer. My favorite brewery had to be Rogue, there Barley wine and Stout were so good I wanted to punch people. The water and the cascade hops up there provide for a perfectly balanced drink. Not only that but a bunch of great local winery's and distillery's. I tried to sample as much as I could, it was to much for one man to handle. I also enjoyed how weird Portland is. Like I said it's a town of cooks and cooks are weird but this goes beyond that. It's been a refuge for weirdos and degenerates for years. Just walking down the street you see it, literally tshirts, stickers, patches and sides of building all with the same slogan "Keep Portland Weird". Fun weird though not scary. At no point did I feel like I was going to be stabbed to death like I have in parts of LA and New York. I had a nice conversation with a man that had blue hair, blue beard, blue clothes and blue tattoos all over him. He seemed to think he was a Druid (Best known for soldiers of Merlin's Army that supposedly battled King Arthur). People just seemed to be in there own world of quirkiness. I dug it. The city of Portland is very beautiful, it has a nice 1920's feel to a lot of the architecture. The entire downtown area is going through a kind of rebuilding, taking the old abandoned brick warehouses and turning them into trendy work/live lofts. I really enjoyed the very nicely maintained city parks and thousands of huge tree in the area. We did a tour of the Japanese Gardens a short cab ride from downtown. I have to say that was one of the highlights of the trip the way everything was perfectly manicured and all the stones laid out in a certain order. It is the only fully authentic Japanese gardens in the US. I have a nothing but respect and admiration for the Japanese people and culture. As beautiful as the city itself was the people are a different story. I don't know if it's the superficial Californian coming out in me or what but those people up there are unattractive to say the least. My wife and I are okay looking people, not the best or the worst, but I noticed we were consistently the best looking people in the room. Lots of white people with what I call "mountain features". You know round faces, not fat but a little meat on them, and Im pretty sure everyone had freckles with dark hair. We joked as we got on the plane that we should have got Northface jackets as souvenirs because that is what EVERYONE wore. We both agree we can't wait to get back to Portland it is a great city!

Anthony
Ps. I know I can't spell or punctuate correctly.